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Dare to Dream: Turn Your Passion Into Profits
by Pamela Kramer
Woman's Day,
April 1, 2005
Passion. The word conjures up steamy romance scenes
from Desperate Housewives or a favorite summer read. For most of
us, though, there's another definition that's just
as riveting. It's what we really love to do even
though countless must-do's compete to crowd it out.
Maybe you can't wait to get back to that
cross-stitch project, the oil painting on your easel
or the bed of roses in your garden.
Now imagine turning what you love into a business venture
that has the potential to be a real moneymaker. A
pipe dream? Well, having fun and earning a living
don't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact,
merging your passion with a small business can be a
brilliant career move. "If you love what you're
doing, you're going to be more effective at it and
willing to do what it takes to overcome obstacles
and setbacks," says Janet Attard, owner of
BusinessKnowHow.com.
To open your mind to the possibilities, we spoke to women
around the country who are generating incomes
following their bliss. Let their stories and
strategies inspire you to take your first steps.
Let's Quilt
Marianne D’Eugenio, 56, decided it was time to quit
her stressful career as a hospital consultant and
indulge her passion of quilting. She dreamed of
opening a cozy shop where her customers could touch
the beautiful materials, lay out their quilts on
tables and chat with other quilters.
Marianne identified the best location for her
business by plotting on a map the locations of all
of the quilting guilds and shops in Connecticut. She
found a void between New Haven and New York.
Then, with the help of her family, she used her
savings to turn a rundown hair salon into Quadrille
Quilting. She bought luxurious fabrics, and hung out
her shingle, and the customers soon followed.
Today Marianne stocks more than 3,500 bolts of
fabric from distributors all over the world. "After
one year the business was able to support itself,
and after the second year it was able to support me
as well, and it gets a little better each month,"
she says. "I’m so happy and my job is totally stress
free now.”
Marianne's Advice: "Work with the other businesses
around you, and refer customers to them when you
can. If you get other shop owners badmouthing you,
you're going to be in trouble."
Home Decorating On a Dime
Originally a science major in college, Shawna Taylor
decided to study design when she realized that she
didn't want to put her all into something if it
wasn't creative. Soon after, she opened Taylored
Designs, now based in Concord, New Hampshire.
Instead of offering her interior-design services to
high-income clients, Shawna, now 30, decided to
specialize in low-cost decorating. "Since I don't
have a lot to spend on decorating myself, I've
learned how to imitate high-end looks," she says.
She shops for inexpensive accessories at discount
stores such as HomeGoods and Pier 1 Imports. "I like
to combine my clients' ideas with mine, then we shop
together for items to finish the look," she says.
"When you're decorating on a small budget, the rooms
often turn out better because you put so much
thought into every detail." Relying on business
cards and referrals from satisfied customers, Shawna
continues to expand her business. "I've been busy
for 12 years.
Soap Galore
More than two years ago Kathy Jones, a stay-at-home
mom in Austin, Texas, started making glycerin soap
to give as gifts. Family and friends liked her
products so much that she decided to start a company
called Mama Says WASH! She sold her soaps at crafts
shows and in gift shops but wanted to increase
sales. Rather than opening her own store, Kathy and
a friend came up with an idea for a business called
See Jane Shop, a venue in which local artisans and
small-business owners could get their products in
front of the public.
See Jane Shop events are held in private homes where
women socialize, drink wine and shop, similar to
other at-home product parties but with numerous
vendors. "It's like a boutique on wheels," says
Kathy, 36. Several times a year, larger events,
called See Jane Shop Family Affairs, are held at
local churches. Vendors pay a small fee to cover the
cost of signs and flyers and to have product
information appear on
SeeJaneShop.net.
"My soap business is going through the roof," Kathy says.
Kathy's Advice: "Keep your business finances
separate from your household accounts. That way you
can really see how much money is coming in and how
much is going out."
For the Love of Reading
Book lover Suzanne Beecher, 50, of Sarasota,
Florida, realized that the busy moms working for her
husband's computer company yearned to read but
didn't have the time. So one day she typed the first
few pages of a book she was reading into an e-mail
and each day sent a little more. "Four days later I
received an e-mail from one woman saying she was
hooked on the book and couldn't wait to receive the
next installment," says Suzanne, who decided to
start a business running e-mail book clubs.
In 1999 Suzanne's husband created her web site,
DearReader.com, and she began working with publishers. Today she receives more than
40 books a day from publishers who want her to
feature their titles. Suzanne and her staff of 13
regularly send out quick five-minute samples from
books in 11 different genres. The clubs are free to
her more than 300,000 subscribers. Revenue comes
from the clubs that she produces for libraries,
publishers and Books-A-Million. "I work hard, but I
sure love what I do."
Suzanne's Advice: "Keep your goals at the forefront
of your mind, and make a conscious effort every day
to make some movement in the direction that you want
to go."
Cookies, Anyone?
Denise DiNorscia Williams, an advertising executive
who loves to cook, launched an online business more
than two years ago selling pizzelles, Italian
specialty cookies, which she and her 80-year-old
mother make to order in her mother's kitchen. The
first step: hiring a designer to create
BellaPizzelle.com.
"It was an investment in my future," says
Denise, 41. She drew on her marketing skills to
create a letter introducing her product and mailed
it to everyone she knew. She earned $6,000 in four
weeks!
Now she pays for Internet advertising and sends
postcards and handwritten thank-you notes to
previous customers. She recently had a bakery built
in the basement of her own home. Her husband,
mother, four aunts and two sisters are on call to
help. "People tell me that I should have the cookies
mass-produced, but it wouldn't be the same," says
Denise. "What could be better than spending time in
the kitchen with family?"
Digging Deep
A lifelong love of plants and flowers inspired
Rhonda Schaper to found a business designing and
installing gardens five years ago. She got the idea
when she was volunteering at the Missouri Botanical
Gardens and taking horticulture classes. Since
Rhonda, 37, was dependent on her income as a mail
manager, she began working toward her dream a few
customers at a time. "As soon as I told friends and
family what I wanted to do, customers started coming
out of the woodwork," she recalls.
Two years later Rhonda had enough work lined up to
quit her day job and devote herself to growing her
company, Glorious Gardens Inc., which she runs from
her home in St. Louis. She leases a nearby lot to
store planting materials and equipment, and has
plenty of business, thanks to word of mouth and a
small ad she runs in the local paper. "Now I love
everything about my life," Rhonda says happily.
"It's such a pleasure to beautify the environment
with plants."
Baskets of Joy
Four years ago Lisa LoVullo, a business consultant
in Baltimore, turned her passion for creating
elaborate gifts into a gift basket company called
Wild Thing. Instead of marketing her service to
individual consumers, Lisa targets businesses.
"I show them how to use gifting as a marketing
strategy," explains Lisa, 47, who creates gifts that
are extensions of her clients' brands. She uses
ribbon imprinted with each company's logo and clever
containers, such as wooden toolboxes for a
construction company. "I feel every gift should
reflect well on the company and resonate with the
recipient," she says.
Initially Lisa didn't spend a lot of money on
inventory. When an order came in, she ran out and
bought what she needed. As her company began to
grow, she attended trade shows to buy the latest
gourmet food items and stocked up on supplies. Now
her home is filled with containers, flowers and
gifts.
She also hired a designer to create her logo and web
site,
WildThingOnline.com. "I have doubled my revenue
in each of my first three years, and it just keeps
snowballing," says Lisa.
Lisa's Advice: "Treat your business like a job, not
a hobby. When I worked in the corporate world, I had
to perform at top level or I would be fired. I try
to approach my business the same way."
Dressing Up Kids' Rooms
The idea for
WallNutz.com was born six years ago, when Becca
Williams was pregnant with her first child and
developed a passion for decorating her baby's
nursery. The Portland, Oregon, mom-to-be wanted a
mural in the room but couldn't afford to hire an
artist, so she created an easy paint-by-number
process and painted a sand castle on the wall. She
found that other parents were also interested in
low-cost decorating ideas.
Becca, 31, got busy creating other mural scenes for
kids, such as jungles and airplanes, and hired a
printer for the patterns. She traded services with a
friend to design her web site. She bought
pay-for-click advertising, ran ads in magazines and
attended trade shows. Soon she was filling orders
for consumers and selling wholesale to small stores.
"It's turned out to be a great business."
Becca's Advice: "Get your family onboard. My husband
is such a good sport about unpacking supplies,
restocking inventory and taking care of the kids.
Older kids need to help out and understand that
you're not always available."
Are You Hungry?
After working as an investment manager, Susan Odell,
41, decided to take a year off and figure out what
to do next. She went to cooking school and took
French lessons and drawing classes. "It was my
Renaissance year," says Susan, who found that
cooking was her true passion. So she worked as a
teacher at a cooking store and school for a year and
then, in 2002, opened her own company, Bon
AppeTeach, in San Francisco.
Susan hosts cooking parties and classes in her home
and in customers' homes. She also gives cooking
classes at local food markets and caters parties and
other events. "I conduct two events a week. I could
do more than that, but it would require hiring
staff," says Susan. Referrals from customers and
contacts through local culinary organizations keep
her busy. "I love the flexibility of what I do, and
it makes me feel so good when students come back and
say they made all of the recipes that I taught in
class," she says.
Susan's Advice: "Network with other business owners
in your industry. That way you can pick up the phone
when you have questions, such as whether to take
credit cards or charge for cancellations."
Do-It-Yourself Crafts
More than two years ago, Catherine Bickford, a
mother of two in South Portland, Maine, turned her
interest in arts and crafts into a business called
Art Night Out, in which local artists teach classes
on a variety of media, such as jewelry, painting and
stained glass. Catherine and her teachers also
create affordable kits for beautiful end products
that look like items you might find in a gallery,
such as crocheted wire-and-bead chokers and
hand-painted Christmas ornaments.
"Some women sign up for classes together or give one
another classes as gifts," explains Catherine, 41,
who advertises in local papers and displays samples
of the projects made in her classes at local crafts
fairs. "At first people think the work is for sale,
and then I tell them that they can make it
themselves," she says. "Creating the detailed
step-by-step instructions, testing the designs and
assembling the kits has been time-consuming, but the
profit margin built into the classes and materials
works out well."
Catherine's Advice: "Be persistent and don't give
up. Most businesses don't pay off for three or four
years, and you need to hang in there and not let
obstacles get in your way."
First Things First
If you
have a great idea for a business and are ready to
jump in, take these steps first:
*Crunch the numbers. Look at how much time and money
it will cost to make and market your product and how
much you can realistically make selling it. "You
need to determine whether or not this will bring you
sufficient profit to make it worth doing, says
small-business expert Janet Attard, founder and
owner of
BusinessKnowHow.com.
*Do some research. Talk to other business owners in
your industry to find out how they got started, what
they did right and mistakes to avoid. Other sources
of information and assistance: the Small Business
Administration (www.sba.gov),
Counselors to America's Small Business (www.score.org),
www.businessownersideacafe.com and
www.entrepreneur.com.
*Plan to succeed. Write up a business plan that
describes your business and outlines your marketing
plan, financial strategy and so on. "It's a
blueprint for where you're going," says Jane Wesman,
author of Dive Right In the Sharks Won't Bite:
The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Success.
Search the Internet for samples and templates.
*Know the rules. When you're running a business, you
need to follow your local and state regulations and
obtain the necessary licenses and permits.
Food-preparation businesses are usually required to
have an inspection and permit, for example. Retail
businesses need a tax license. Check with your local
or state government office for information.
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